Mixed resolution displays

ABSTRACT

Two or more display units with different resolutions are combined such that the geometry of images displayed across the multiple display units is preserved and the image appears to be substantially continuous to a viewer of the image. Compatibility of the sizes of image elements on different display units is achieved by using display unit-specific scaling to compensate for the different pixel sizes on the individual display units.

This patent application claims priority benefit from US ProvisionalApplication No. 60/290,493 filed May 11, 2001.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application is related to copending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/015,642 titled “Methods of Using Mixed Resolution Displays”,by Baudisch et al., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/015,680 titled“System Utilizing Mixed Resolution Displays”, by Baudisch et al. andU.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/015,677 titled “Methods of UsingMixed Resolution Displays”, by Baudisch et al. all filed concurrentlyherewith.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

The following patents and/or patent applications are herein incorporatedby reference:

-   U.S. Pat. No. 6,018,340, titled “Robust Display Management in a    Multiple Monitor Environment”, by Butler et al. and issued on Jan.    25, 2000,-   U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,430, titled “Peripheral Lenses for Simulating    Peripheral Vision on a Display Device”, by Robertson et al. and    issued on Sep. 7, 1999,-   U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,327, titled “Multiple Resolution Data Display”,    by Seidensticker, Jr., and issued on Jul. 6, 1999,-   U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,005, titled “Design and Method for Large Virtual    Work-space”, by Walls et al. and issued on Jul. 11, 2000,-   U.S. Pat. No. 5,923,307, titled “Logical Monitor Configuration in a    Multiple Monitor Environment”, by Hogle, IV and issued on Jul. 13,    1999

BACKGROUND

This invention relates generally to displaying and managing windows andimages within a multiple display area environment where at least one ofthe display areas has a larger pixel size than at least one other of thedisplay areas

A typical computer system includes a computer having a centralprocessing unit, an input/output unit and memory containing variousprograms used by the computer such as an operating system and one ormore application programs. An end-user of the computer systemcommunicates with the computer by means of various input devices(keyboard, mouse, pen, touch screen, voice, etc.), which transferinformation to the computer via the input/output unit. The computerresponds to this input data, among other ways, by providing responsiveoutput to the end-user, for example, by displaying appropriate text andimages on the screen of a display monitor.

Operating systems often include a graphical user interface (“GUI”) bywhich the operating system and any applications it may be running (e.g.,a word processing program) may communicate with the end-user. Onecommonly used GUI implementation employs a desktop metaphor in which thescreen of the monitor is regarded as a virtual desktop. The desktop isan essentially two-dimensional working template area supporting variousgraphical objects, including one or more display regions. Information isdisplayed on the desktop within the display regions (e.g., window,dialog box, pop-up menu, pull-down menu, drop-down list, icon), whichtypically are rectangular in shape, although many shapes and sizes arepossible. Each display region may be dedicated to a specific applicationor to the operating system under which the applications are running. Bymanipulating a cursor (such as with standard point & click techniques),an end-user can manage the display regions as desired, for example, bycreating new display regions or eliminating old ones, or by resizing orrepositioning the display regions to fit the end-user's needs. Theend-user may “activate” a particular display region and its associatedapplication, for example, by “clicking” the cursor when it appearswithin the desired region.

The screen size and resolution available to consumers has grown over thepast years, but not as fast as the increase in storage and computationalpower has empowered users to work with larger data objects. For manytasks involving visual representations, the display thereby has becomethe bottleneck of computer systems. When a user's display is not able todisplay the number of pixels required for displaying all the desiredinformation at once, users have the following choices:

-   -   (a) They can navigate (e.g. zoom and pan) the display manually        to acquire the information sequentially. Additional navigation        means additional user effort.    -   (b) They can replace the current display with a display able to        display the required number of pixels, i.e. a “large        high-resolution display”. Current technology is able to provide        large high-resolution displays, but technologies proposed so far        for such displays are still cost-intensive, space-intensive, or        both, which has prevented these technologies from reaching the        mass market.    -   (c) They can use an appropriate visualization technique that        allows fitting the required data into a small screen by reducing        the space allocated for irrelevant information. The two main        approaches utilized in information visualization techniques are        overview plus detail views (B. Shneiderman. Designing the User        Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction.        Third edition. Reading Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1998.) and        fish-eye views (George Furnas, “Generalized Fisheye Views,” CHI        '86, Proceedings, pp. 16-23).

Overview plus detail visualizations use two distinct views: one showinga close-up and the other showing the entire document. The drawback ofthis approach is that it requires users to visually switch back andforth between the two distinct views and to reorient themselves everytime they switch. Fisheye views avoid the distinction between two viewsby keeping adjacent information together. The switching between detailregion and periphery is thereby accelerated. However, the downside ofthis approach is that it introduces distortion, which makes somecontent, for example photographic content, difficult to recognize. Bothof these visualization techniques use different scaling for thedifferent display regions, making it difficult to visually compare sizesand lengths between objects located in different regions.

To alleviate this problem, a computer system with a display called a“mixed resolution display” has been used. Mixed resolution displayscombine two or more display units with different resolutions such thatthe geometry of displayed images is preserved. Objects displayed acrossmultiple display units preserve size and shape, although theirresolution changes.

There are two different ways of perceiving a mixed resolution display.Firstly, mixed resolution displays can be considered normal,monitor-sized displays that are enhanced with additional low-resolutiondisplay space in the periphery. Secondly, mixed resolution displays canbe considered large low-resolution displays that are enhanced with ahigh-resolution region in the center, similar in concept to a “magiclens”. For a description of the “magic lens” system please see a paperby: Bier, E. A., Stone, M. C., Pier, K., Buxton, W., and DeRose, titled“T. D. Toolglass and magic lenses: the see-through interface” in theProceedings of the 20th annual conference on Computer graphics, 1993,Pages 73-80.

A study by Jonathan Grudin (Grudin J., “Partitioning Digital Worlds:Focal and Peripheral Awareness in Multiple Monitor Use”, pages 458-465,of the Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors incomputing systems, CHI 2001, ACM Pressshows that users do not use acombination of two or more display units as a single display area, eventhough they show adjacent parts of the same computer desktop. The gapbetween the two display units may be accountable for this behavior. Inorder for an image displayed on a mixed resolution display to beperceived as a single image, the following basic properties of the imagehave to be preserved.

-   -   (a) Geometry-preservation: The geometry of displayed images        should be distorted as little as possible. Angles, the ratio        between lengths, and the ratio between surfaces of the displayed        image should correspond as closely as possible to those of the        image when it was created. Images that were created by        projecting onto a flat surface (e.g. the film in a camera or the        projection plane in a 3D rendering program) are best displayed        by displaying using a flat surface, so that angles, distance        relations, and size relations are preserved.

Multiple monitor configurations have been used to create hybriddisplays. For example see U.S. Pat. No. 6,018,340, titled “RobustDisplay Management in a Multiple Monitor Environment”, by Butler et al.,issued on Jan. 25, 2000. However this implementation, does not offer thesize preservation described above. When an image is displayed across twoor more monitors that display their content using different pixel sizes(e.g. when the user is moving an image from one monitor to another), thetwo portions of the image on the individual monitors are displayed indifferent sizes, disrupting the user's perception of a continuous image.

-   -   (b) Color-continuity: The colors in the image should be        retained, as closely as practicable to the colors in the image        when it was created. For example, if two points in the image        were the same color in the original image, then they should have        the same or very similar colors in the displayed image.    -   (c) X/Y continuity: The gap between the visible display regions        of the individual display units (the X/Y gap) should be as small        as possible for a viewer located directly in front of the mixed        resolution display.    -   (d) Z-continuity: Points that were in the same plane in the        original image should be in the same plane or close to the same        plane in the displayed image. The distance between the display        planes of two or more display units (the Z gap) should therefore        be as small as possible.    -   (e) Time-continuity: Dynamic images should preserve as closely        as practicable lapsed time continuity between events. For        example, in a computer animation, a video, etc. two changes that        take place with a certain time distance in the original dynamic        image should happen in the same order and with the same time        distance in the displayed image.

Multiple monitor configurations to extend the user's display space havenot always been able to maintain this parameter. For example, in a paperby Feiner, S. and Shamash, A., titled “Hybrid user interfaces: breedingvirtually bigger interfaces for physically smaller computers”,Proceedings of the Fourth Annual ACM Symposium on User InterfaceSoftware and Technology, pages 9-17, 1991, a system is described showinga hybrid display consisting of “goggles” worn by the user along with asingle monitor. This solution requires tracking the user's headposition. The lag resulting from the tracking mechanism inserts anundesirable time-discontinuity.

Mixed resolution displays try to address some of these criteria. Mixedresolution displays combine two or more display units with differentresolutions such that basic properties of an image displayed on it arepreserved. When images elements are displayed across multiple displayunits of a mixed resolution display, the image elements are displayedusing the same size and shape, although they are displayed on displayunits with differently sized pixels. Additionally, the system introducesno inherent time lag between display units.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Two or more display units with different resolutions are combined suchthat the geometry of images displayed across the multiple display unitsis preserved and the image appears to be substantially continuous to aviewer of the image. Compatibility of the sizes of image elements ondifferent display units is achieved by using display unit-specificscaling to compensate for the different pixel sizes on the individualdisplay units. Several embodiments for combining multiple display units,at least two of which use differently sized pixels, into a mixedresolution display are described. One embodiment combines a flathigh-resolution display, such as an LCD, with a projection display, suchthat the display area of the high-resolution display is surrounded bythe display area of the projection display. The visible gap between thetwo display units is minimized, while using minimal space and acost-efficient setup.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an imaging system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an image displayed on a mixed resolution system.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the calibration process of a mixedresolution display.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an alternate embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another alternate embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another alternate embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 8 is a perspective diagram of a display unit.

FIG. 9 is a perspective diagram of one embodiment showing thecombination of two displays.

FIG. 10 is a perspective diagram of an alternate embodiment showing thecombination of two displays.

FIG. 11 is a frontal view showing an alternate embodiment of thecombination of two displays.

FIG. 12 is a side view showing an embodiment of the combination of twodisplays.

FIG. 13 is a side view showing an alternate embodiment of thecombination of two displays.

FIG. 14 is a side view showing another alternate embodiment of thecombination of two displays.

FIG. 15 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a combination of twodisplays utilizing a projection system.

FIG. 16 is a perspective view of an alternate embodiment of acombination of two displays utilizing a projection system.

FIG. 17 is a frontal view of an embodiment combining three displays.

FIG. 18 is a frontal view of an alternate embodiment combining threedisplays.

FIG. 19 is a frontal view of an embodiment combining five displays.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Imaging System

FIG. 1 shows the architecture of the imaging system 200 required fordisplaying an image on a mixed resolution display comprised of severaldisplay units 290.

The term image is defined as arbitrary graphical content. The image canbe static (e.g. a photograph) or dynamic (e.g. a video or the output ofa program continuously generating graphical output), digital or analog.The image could use any type of representation, such as a raster-based,vector-based, scan line-based or any other representation. The image canbe encoded using any encoding scheme, such as bitmap format, gif, jpeg,mpeg, any video format such as AVI, DV, NTSC, PAL or any other formatused for encoding images. Images can be any shape or form, such asrectangular, round, irregular shapes or any shape that can be encoded inthe encoding scheme. The images may include alpha-numerics, text,symbols, graphics, pictures, drawings or any combination of these. Theimages may be intended for human viewing, or they may bemachine-readable or both.

The imaging system 200 is used to display an image or series of imagesacross several display units 290, such that angles, length, and surfacerelationships in the displayed image correspond to those in the originalimage, although the display units 290 use different pixel sizes, such asthat shown in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows an image 10, in this example an imageof the letter “k”, displayed across a display area 25 having pixels 15and display area 35 having pixels 20 where the size of the pixels 15, 20in the display areas 25, 35 are different. In this example, pixel 15 hasan area that is a factor of sixteen larger than pixel 20. The displayarea 25 with the larger pixel 15 may be referred to as the “contextarea” and the display area 35 with the smaller pixel 20 may be referredto as the “focus area”. The focus area contains a portion of the entireimage 10 displayed at a higher resolution.

As can be appreciated by viewing FIG. 2, unless the images displayed inthe focus area and the context area are aligned and sized correctly, theimage will not appear to be continuous. For instance, if the imagedisplayed in the focus area were shifted or translated with respect tothe image displayed in the context area this would result in amisalignment or discontinuity in the image. Further if the image in thefocus area were either enlarged or reduced relative to the imagedisplayed in the context area this would also introduce discontinuitiesin the image. Additional image discontinuities would further beintroduced if the images in the focus and context areas were ofdifferent colors, shadings, rotational orientations, etc.

FIG. 1 is an exemplary overview diagram that shows what components maybe used to implement an embodiment of the imaging system 200. Theimaging system 200 may be implemented in a variety of ways depending onthe application and may not require all the components shown in FIG. 1.For example, the buffers 295, input collector 220, or one or more imageprocessors 240, 255 may not be necessary in some embodiments. Additionalbuffers 295 may be added to process data in an asynchronous fashionin-between various components shown in FIG. 1. Any of the components canbe implemented as either specialized hardware or software orcustomizable hardware or customizable software.

All the components could be implemented in a single machine or in adistributed system. For example, all of the shown processing units maybe located inside the same physical machine, or they may be distributedover multiple machines.

Graphical data communication channels 205 and user input communicationchannels 245 allow data to be transferred between various components inthe imaging system 200 and display units 290. Communication channels 205may be software connections inside a machine, such as socketconnections, named pipes, clipboards, program interfaces and othersoftware mechanisms that allow software programs to communicate witheach other or with hardware devices. In hardware, the communicationchannel could be implemented in several ways, by means of a cable, RFnetwork, IR connection, fiber channel connector, circuit board, or othermethods of transporting data with enough bandwidth to provide a reliablecommunication channel between components as described above in FIG. 1.It may also be a combination of software and hardware, such as a networkcable and a network protocol.

Application 230, image processors 240, image replicator 250, and viewer260 can be implemented using software, digital hardware, or analoghardware. The display units 290 can be implemented using digital oranalog hardware. If the individual components are not all analog ordigital, matching converters have to be inserted between them, such asanalog-digital and digital-analog image converters.

Moving on to the operation of the imaging system 200, input generatingentities 210 provide user input to input collector 220 by acommunication channel 245. Input generating entities 210 can includevarious sources, such as one or more users using peripherals, such as amouse, keyboard, joystick, voice recognition system or otherperipherals, to generate user input, computer file systems and datastreams. The input provided by the input generating entities 210 couldconsist of analog data or digital data.

The input collector 220 collects all the input from the various inputgenerating entities and forwards the input as data to various othercomponents in the imaging system 200 as appropriate as well assuppresses certain types of input that may decalibrate the display. Theinput collector 220 can be implemented in software as one or moreprograms or in hardware (e.g. a customized input device) or as anycombination of multiple software programs and/or multiple hardwaredevices. One of the components that the input collector forwards data tois the application 230. The application 230 utilizes the data sent to itfrom the input collector 220 to generate an image, image data, or imageinstructions, or other image information, which can be transformed intoan image. The application 230 then sends the generated image to an imageprocessor 240 for additional processing, format translation etc. ifneeded. The image processor 240 may not be needed in some systems if theapplication 230 generates image information in a format, which isreadily usable, by the image replicator. The image processor 240 couldbe implemented using a single image processor 240 or as a series ofimage processors 240 which may or may not have buffers between them.When the image processor 240 has completed its tasks, it sends imagedata to the image fork 280.

The image fork 280 comprises an image replicator 250, and two or moreviewers 260. The image replicator 250 receives the image data and usesit to generate multiple images, which it passes to the viewers 260. Eachviewer 260 is associated with a single image transformation branch 225and display unit 290. Shown in FIG. 1 are two viewers 260, one for eachimage transformation branch 225 and display unit 290. However, in someembodiments it may be desired to have more display units 290. If morethan two display units 290 are desired, then there will be an equivalentnumber of image transformation branches 225, and each imagetransformation branch 225 will have a viewer 260. In one embodiment theviewers 260 consisted of an application capable of receiving displayinput and determining the necessary-transformations for viewing on adisplay 290. Consequently, the image viewers 260 were used to transformthe data appropriately for its resultant display unit 290. In anotherembodiment, the viewers 260 consisted of a hardware device that receivesimage information from the environment and translates this into theappropriate form for viewing on display 290.

There are many ways of implementing the image fork 280 such as a singleprogram able to show an image in multiple windows, multiple programsrunning on a single computer, multiple machines connected over anetwork, one or more pieces connected via a communication channel ofimage processing hardware, etc.

After leaving the viewers 260 of image fork 280, the image data is sentto image processors 255. Image processors 255 could be implemented usinga single image processor 255 or as a series of image processors 255which may or may not have buffers 295 between them. Each of these imageprocessors 255 is associated with a specific display 290. Each imageprocessor 255 receives the data from the viewer 260 associated with itdisplay unit 290 and transforms the data appropriately to drive thedisplay 290. However, it should be noted, that if data from the viewer260 is independently capable of driving the display unit 290, then imageprocessor 255 would not be necessary.

To achieve the desired perceived continuous display of the displayedimage, each of the image transformation branches starting with theviewers 260 and including the subsequent image processors 255, mustproduce the correct image for their associated display 290. If thedisplay units 290 are in the same plane, not rotated with respect toeach other and produce the same color, it is sufficient to havetranslation, scaling, and clipping functionality for that purpose. Inmore complex setups including display units of different types, colorcorrection, rotation, distortion, or other functions may be required. Invarious embodiments the appropriate scaling factors and other imagemanipulation necessary for each of the separate images to displaycorrectly on the associated display unit 290 can be provided by theimage replicator 250, or any element in the image transformationbranches 225 such as the image viewers 260 or image processors 255 orany combination thereof. If the image processor 255 is implemented as aseries of image processors then the last image processor 255 in theseries delivers the image to the respective display units 290.

The path discussed from input generating entities 210 to application 230to image processor 240 to image fork 280 to image processor 240 todisplay units 290 or image transformation hierarchy 235 is for imagedata. While for some embodiments, this may be all that is necessary toprovide the required image data to the display units 290, includinginteractive behavior, other embodiments may allow the system to showinteractive behavior using non-image input or navigation input whichbypasses the image transformation hierarchy 235. In such systems thenavigation input must be forwarded to the respective components forprocessing. In such cases the navigation input will be forwarded to theappropriate component that has the facility to receive and manipulatethe image data based on the navigation input. These components could beeither the viewers 260 or image processors 255 or any combination ofthese elements. This is shown by utilizing input fork and transformunits 270 to supply the navigation input to the viewers 260 and imageprocessors 255. It should be noted that the image fork and transformunits are used to insure that all the elements at a particular point inthe image transformation branches receive the same data from thenavigation input. Non-image or navigation input can consist of mousemovement, keyboard input, panning, and selection of regions or any otherform of navigation task.

The input collector 220 collects the navigation input from the inputgenerating entities 210 as discussed earlier. After determining whichinput is navigation input, the input collector 220 forwards the input tothe input fork and transform units 270. The input collector 220classifies received input from the input generating entities 210according to which transformation unit 270 it is intended for. The inputfork and transform unit 270 receives input from an input collector 220and transforms this input accordingly. Some example transformationfunctions are scaling, panning, scrolling, selecting regions, or byapplying other methods to the data to change the input values intoanother value to be output. The input fork and transformation unit 270could be implemented as software, such as a program that scales mousemovement by a certain ratio and sends the appropriately scaled movementto the appropriate viewer 260. The input fork and transformation unit270 could be implemented as hardware, such as circuitry built into adevice that allows the electronic signals to be scaled. This is the casefor a single forking point at the image replicator 250. The system couldalternatively be implemented using multiple forking points with multipleimage replicators 250 to obtain a tree-like system.

The input fork and transform unit 270, viewers 260, and image processors255 should not introduce any additional image content, such as bordersor artifacts that would distort the perceived continuous image. If suchcontent is present, it must be removed prior to display on the displays290. For instance the creation of borders around the images displayedwill create artificial separations between the display areas, similar ineffect to each of the displays 290 having borders. This can be avoidedby scaling images so that they do not interfere with the perceivedcontinuous image. For example, applications could use full screen mode,if available, or additional image content can be removed in a latertransformation using scaling and/or clipping in image processor 255.Alternatively, an overlapping display 290 setup can be used.

Calibration of Display Units

In order for the images on the display units 290 to be aligned with eachother and provide a single perceived image of mixed resolution, thedisplay units 290 must be calibrated. Generally calibration will includedetermining values for translation and scaling of the images, butdepending on the setup may also include values for rotation, distortion,brightness and color, etc. During calibration of the system the inputcollector 220 and input fork and transform units 270 may be deactivatedto allow the image transformers in the individual branches to beaccessed independently. FIG. 3 describes a flow chart for calibratingthe system of image transformation branches 225.

If the pixels on the individual display units 290 have different aspectratios, scaling may be carried out in two steps; one step for horizontalscaling and a second step for vertical scaling.

For each dimension to be calibrated, a test image is required that showsa feature of that dimension in each individual display 290. Whencalibrating scaling, for example, the test image has to show at leastone image element of known size in each display unit. A text imagereusable for calibrating the geometric dimensions scaling, translation,rotation, and distortion may, for example, show a labeled grid. To alsoallow calibrating color-related dimensions such as brightness, contrast,white balance or color balance a labeled color gradient may be added tothe test image. If such a test image is not already available, the usercan create one, using image processing software.

For each dimension to be calibrated, calibration can now be done asshown in FIG. 3. In some systems, it may be convenient to calibratescaling first as scaling may affect translation. First, the test imagehas to be displayed on the mixed resolution display as shown in box 310.Once the text image has been displayed the user picks a reference valueand a tolerance interval for that feature as shown in box 320. In thecase of vertical scaling, the reference value would be the desiredheight in millimeters of an image element contained in the test image.The tolerance interval should be selected in accordance with theprecision provided by software and hardware.

Once the reference value and tolerance interval are selected, then thevalue of the feature as currently displayed on the individual displays290 must be measured or estimated as shown in box 330. In the case ofscaling, this can be accomplished by using a ruler to measure the sizesof the reference image element in the different display units. If themeasured value lies outside the tolerance interval, then one of theimage transformers capable of transforming that feature for therespective display unit must be adjusted to compensate for the error asshown in box 350. This element could be viewers 260, input fork andtransform units 270, image processor 255 or any combination of theabove. Which unit is adjusted will depend on the individual system beingused. For example, if the ratio between desired and measured size of thetest image element was 5/3, an image transformer in the respective imagetransformation branch 225 should be adjusted by the inverse of thatfactor, i.e. ⅗. The adjustment procedure is then repeated for thatdisplay and dimension until the measured value lies within the toleranceinterval.

Once one of the displays 290 has been calibrated, the user moves to box360 and ascertains if there are more displays 290 units to calibrate. Ifso, the user repeats the above process until all displays 290 have beencalibrated. At this point, all displays 290 have been calibrated for aspecific feature. The user must then determine if there are morefeatures to calibrate as shown in box 370. If so, then the proceduresare repeated until all displays 290 are calibrated for all features.

Now that the system has generally described, the following descriptionswill proceed to describe some examples of specific embodiments.

Embodiment 1 VNC Implementation

FIG. 4 shows one embodiment of the imaging system 200 implemented withseveral computer systems linked together over a network. As thisembodiment refers to the same components shown in FIG. 1, the samereference numerals will be used to denote similar components. Thedisplays 290 were implemented using a projection system and a LCDscreen. The Virtual Network Computing (VNC) software, available fromAT&T under the GNU public license, was used to implement a large portionof the image system 200. In essence, the VNC software is a remotedisplay system that allows a user to view a computing ‘desktop’environment not only on the machine where it is running, but fromanywhere on the Internet and from a wide variety of machinearchitectures. The VNC server program was run on a computer systemrunning the Linux operating system (Linux computer) and implemented aportion of the input collector 220, application 230, image processor240, and the image replicator 250. Two instantiations of the VNC clientprogram was run on a computer system using Microsoft Windows (Microsoftcomputer) and implemented the remaining portion of the input collectorand the viewers 260. The VNC server program created a large virtualframe buffer, which provides space in the memory of the Linux computerfor holding the entire image. Both the Linux computer and the Microsoftcomputer had network capability to allow it to communicate with otherelements of the imaging system 200.

As discussed earlier the input generating entities 210 could be a userusing peripherals to generate user input. These devices are connected tothe Microsoft computer and either one of the instantiations of the VNCviewer receives the user input. The VNC viewer software then immediatelypasses the user input to the VNC server software running on the Linuxcomputer. The VNC viewer which initially receives the user inputtogether the VNC server to which it immediately passes the user inputperform the input collector 220 functions. The VNC server thencommunicates with the desired desktop application 230 running on theserver for which the input is intended. Once the desktop application 230has had an opportunity to receive and process the user input passed toit by the VNC server, it communicates the resultant image informationback to the VNC server. The VNC server then performs the roles of theimage process 240 by reformatting the data appropriately for the nextstep and the image replicator 250, by making two copies of the imagedata. The result is that two copies of bitmap image data are made by theVNC server. The VNC server then provides two copies of the image data tothe two instantiations of the VNC viewer software, which are the viewers260, one for the LCD display and one for the projection system display.The two instantiations of the VNC viewer software scale the data fortheir respective display units 290 and then communicate the scaled imagedata to two image processors 255 via a driver included with theMicrosoft computer. The image processors 255 were implemented in theMicrosoft computer using two graphic display adapters. The two imageprocessors 255 convert the scaled image data to a format appropriate fordriving their respective display units 290 and communicate directly withLCD display and the projection system.

The LCD display and the projections system were connected to theMicrosoft computer as a two-headed display, for an example of this typeof setup see U.S. Pat. No. 6,088,005, titled “Design and Method forLarge Virtual Workspace”, by Walls et al. and issued on Jul. 11, 2000,and U.S. Pat. No. 5,923,307, titled “Logical Monitor Configuration in aMultiple Monitor Environment”, by Hogle, IV and issued on Jul. 13, 1999,through the communication channel 205. The communication channel 205 wasimplemented as a cable. For an example of such a forking driver see U.S.Pat. No. 6,088,005, titled “Design and Method for Large VirtualWorkspace”, by Walls et al. and issued on Jul. 11, 2000. The data wasfurther routed from the graphics display adapters to the LCD display andthe projection display via a cable.

It should be noted that in this embodiment all the data gathered by theinput collector 220 was processed and forwarded directly on the path asdescribed above. Therefore, the input fork and transform units 270 wereunnecessary, as were the user input communication channels 245connecting to and from the input fork and transform units. Further, theuser input communication channel 245 from the input collector 220 to theimage replicator 250 was also unnecessary. Accordingly, these componentswere not implemented in this embodiment.

The scaling of the VNC viewers was calibrated as follows:

First, a test image was displayed across the LCD display and theprojection display. The scaling of the display 290 using smaller pixels,in this case the LCD display, was defined as the reference value. Thesize of the test image element was measured on the projection unit, andthe scaling of VNC viewer was then adjusted by setting an appropriatescaling factor in the VNC viewer. The VNC viewer scaling factor wasadjusted by setting the “Scaled by” factor in the Settings window.Translation was calibrated by dragging the two VNC viewer windows intothe display areas associated with the LCD display and the projectiondisplay and then by using the scroll bar to adjusting the content of theVNC viewer windows. Finally the window was enlarged to full size. Thisimplementation was feasible for running arbitrary Linux applications onthe Linux computer, including image viewers, games, slide presentationprograms, video-playback and others.

Embodiment 2 Unreal Tournament Implementation

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment where the imaging system 200 can also be usedto implement a 3D game scenario, again using two computer systems linkedacross a network sharing the same view of a single application. Asbefore, the views must be scaled differently to maintain visualcontinuity across the focus plus context display. In thisimplementation, the Unreal Tournament software by Epic Games was usedand installed on two separate computer systems both running MicrosoftWindows (Microsoft computer 1 and Microsoft computer 2). Microsoftcomputer 1 and Microsoft computer 2 were connected to each other via anetworked setting. The Unreal Tournament software on Microsoft computer1 was utilized as the input collector 220 and the image transformationstem 215. The data was then shared with both computers such that theUnreal Tournament software on Microsoft computer 1 implemented one ofthe image transformation branches 225 while Unreal Tournament softwareon Microsoft computer 2 implemented the other image transformationbranch 225. Alternatively, a third computer also running the UnrealTournament software in spectator mode could be used to implement theother image transformation branch instead of using Microsoft computer 1.As above, a graphics display adapter in each of the Microsoft computerswas used to implement the image processors 255 and were connected via acable to the displays 290. Also as above, the displays 290 wereimplemented using an LCD display and a projection system.

In order to maintain synchronization between the images on the displays290 the game software on the Microsoft computer 2 was run in “spectatormode”. Spectator mode allows Microsoft computer 2 to connect to theUnreal Tournament software on Microsoft computer 1 across the network toobtain the view parameters of the image generated by Microsoft computer1 It should be noted that while this embodiment is very similar to theVNC embodiment discussed with respect to FIG. 4, the application 230provides image output in a form that can be directly manipulated by theimage replicator 250 and consequently that the image processor 240,which was used in FIG. 4 to transform the image data into an appropriateformat for the image replicator 250, has been omitted.

Also as above, the images need to be calibrated to preserve the visualuniformity. Calibration was performed interactively by switching theimage of either Microsoft computer 1 or Microsoft computer 2 to windowedmode (using the command tooglefullscreen), scaling the window content byadjusting its “field of view” (using the command fov 30) and then movingthe window with the mouse. Each installation of the game on the twocomputers had its own base of image data. As in the implementation whichutilized the VNC software, the input forking and scaling programs wereunnecessary and therefore were left out. When run, the user could playthe game by interacting with the Microsoft computer 1, while thedisplayed image was displayed across the displays of both computers.

Embodiment 3 ACDsee

FIG. 6 shows a diagram of an embodiment used to view previouslyconstructed graphical data. Therefore, it can be viewed that the initialinput to the system performed by the input generating entities 210,input collector 220, application 230, image processor 240, and imagereplicator 250 contained in subsystem 215 were all performed offline togenerate the initial image data. This was done using Photoshop,available from Adobe Systems, running on a standard computer set-up, togenerate and save two images files. Although, in this implementationPhotoshop was used to generate the image files, this is used forexemplary purposes only and any image files in any format could havebeen used.

In this embodiment, the remainder of the imaging system 200 wasimplemented using three computers utilizing an asynchronous setup. Twoof the computers were set up to run ACDsee image viewer softwareavailable from ACD systems and Microsoft Windows (Microsoft computer 1and Microsoft computer 2). The third computer was set up to run theLinux operating system (Linux Computer) and a custom server program tobe described below that acted as the input collector 220 and the inputfork and transform unit 270. It should be noted that in contrast to theembodiments described above all user input, when viewing the imagefiles, is received by the input collector 220 and sent to the input forkand transform unit 270 as the image transformation stem 215 functionswere performed earlier offline in creating the initial image files andare therefore no longer available.

Microsoft computer 1 and Microsoft computer 2 were then given access tothe saved Photoshop files via the network. This was done using theACDsee image viewer software as the viewers 260. Again, as described inthe embodiments above, the two images processors 255 were implemented asgraphic display adaptors in the two Microsoft computer 1 and Microsoftcomputer 2, as well as the displays 290 being implemented using an LCDDisplay and a projection system. In this setup a trackball device wasconnected to the Linux computer as an input generating entity 210. Auser could use the trackball device to pan the entire image across themixed resolution display. Translation events from the trackball wereduplicated and scaled according to the scaling factors in the input forkand transform unit 270.

The custom server program implementing the input fork and transform unit270 received input as mouse events from the input generating entities210, such as the trackball. The custom server program then appropriatelytransformed the data by scaling and forking. The custom server programthen transferred the data to the custom client software residing onMicrosoft computer 1 and Microsoft computer 2. The custom client programwas necessary because neither Microsoft computer 1 nor Microsoftcomputer 2 are inherently able to listen to the network for mouseevents. The custom client program then receives the scaled and forkedinput data and transfers it to the operating systems on Microsoftcomputers 1 and 2 which then interacts with the ACDsee program in theusual manner.

To calibrate the images, the system 200 was initialized withpredetermined scaling factors that had been measured earlier. The imageto be displayed was then duplicated, scaled and translated appropriatelyusing the ACDsee image processing program, and the two versions weresaved to a disk. To view the images, the two instances of the ACDseeimage viewing software were started running on the two differentcomputers and were given access to the saved files via the networkconnection. The two images were aligned by panning one of them insidethe image viewer program.

Embodiment 4 Video Transmission

FIG. 7 shows a diagram of an embodiment for viewing video images. Theimaging system 200 has been reduced to the viewers 260 and an imageprocessors 255. The viewers 260 were implemented using two video cameraswherein each camera has been zoomed to provide the correct scalingfactors and then are used to create the video images. One camera willtherefore be used to capture the large image to be displayed on thelarge context display while the other camera will be used to film thesmaller portion of the image to be displayed on the focus display.Either analog or digital cameras could be used. If the output format ofthe cameras match the input format of the display then the output of thecameras can be directly connected to the respective display units 290using drivers internal to the cameras as the image processors 205enabling the images to be viewed synchronously while being recorded.Alternatively, the video images could be saved for later synchronoustransmission, for instance by using a playback device such as a VCR.Alternatively, video images may be saved in either analog or digitalimage files for future playback for instance by creating AVI files andusing a media player. As discussed above, the displays were implementedusing an LCD display and a projection system.

Calibration of the imaging system 200 is done by moving, tilting, andzooming the cameras while monitoring the filmed image until a test imageis recorded appropriately. Once the system is calibrated the camerasshould be coupled together so that they are moved together and maintainthe correct images. Also, the cameras may be arranged to minimizeparallax, if possible. In particular, the camera used to capture theimage used for the smaller focus display may be situated directly infront of the camera used to capture the larger image for context displayprovided however, that the camera used to capture the image for thefocus display does not black any portion of the image to be displayed onthe context display.

Display Hardware Embodiments

The examples described above each used an LCD display and a projectionsystem to implement the mixed resolution displays 290 in a focus pluscontext displays system. However, these focus plus context displaysystems can be arranged in many different configurations and utilizingmany different display types to obtain a mixed resolution display. Themixed resolution display can be utilized in any orientation. Forexample, the display area may be substantially vertical, as in a mixedresolution display standing on a table or hanging on a wall etc. Themixed resolution display could also be utilized with the display areahorizontal, as in a table-like setup or tilted at an angle, or could beany other orientation that would allow a user view of its display area.

Hereinafter is a description of the various display combinations andspatial arrangements of at least two display units, at least one of themhaving a different pixel size from the others, to create a mixedresolution display.

FIG. 8 describes a display unit 100. The display unit 100 consists of adisplay area 145 having a display width Dw within a border 180. Theborder 180 has a border width Bw and a border depth Bd and may forinstance, be the display unit's casing. The border depth Bd is a measureof the amount that the border 180 projects out from the display area145. The display unit 100 has a total depth Dt including the depth ofthe border 180. In the FIG. 8, while the display unit 100 is shown to berectangular, it could in practice be any shape such as square, circular,concave, convex, other curvilinear shapes or even irregular shapes orother 3-dimensional shapes both regular and irregular. The display area145 can be implemented with many different types of displays. It couldbe projected images, LCD, LED displays, CRT displays, organic displays,electric paper displays, plasma displays, or any combination of suchdisplays with mirrors and lenses. The electric paper display may be ofthe type known as gyricon displays or electrophoretic displays, or ofother forthcoming methods of electric paper.

Some display units 100 may be borderless. In the case of borderlessdisplays, the border width Bw and border depth Bd are equal to zero. InFIG. 8, while the border 180 is shown to be rectangular, it could inpractice be any shape such as square, circular, concave, convex, othercurvilinear shapes or even irregular shapes or other 3-dimensionalshapes both regular and irregular.

FIGS. 9-14 show several configurations for combining two or moredisplays. The same reference numerals will be used throughout thedescription to refer to similar elements.

FIG. 9 describes a configuration that combines two displays 110, 120having display areas 130, 140 where the display areas have differentpixel sizes from each other One display unit 120 is located in front ofthe other display unit 110. Display 110 has a border 150 and display 120has a border 160. If the border 160 of display 120 is greater than zero(i.e. is not borderless) then the border 160 will cover a portion of thedisplay area 130 on display 110 and cause a gap in the displayed imagesreferred to as an x/y gap. If the border width Bw and the border depthBd of the border 160 of display unit 120 is smaller than the borderwidth Bw and the border depth Bd of the border 150 of the display unit110, this setup minimizes the gap in the images caused by the border 160of the display 120 for a viewer located in front of the displays 110,120.

The z gap distance between the two displays 110, 120 is at least thedisplay thickness Dt of the front display unit 120 plus the border depthBd of the rear display's border 150 minus the border depth Bd of thefront display 120. In the special case that the front display 120 isentirely surrounded by the rear display 110 and abutted against thedisplay area 130 of the rear display 110 such that their borders 160,150 do not overlap, then the z gap is at least the display thickness Dtof the front display 120 minus its border depth Bd.

FIG. 10 describes a configuration that combines two adjacent displays110, 120 of different pixel sizes having display areas 130, 140respectively. This arrangement allows configuring both displays 110,120, such that their display areas 140, 130 are in the same plane,thereby minimizing the Z-gap. However, in this arrangement, the X/Y gapis at least the sum of the border width Bw of the border 150 of display110 plus the border width Bw of border 160 of the other display 120.Other combinations of two or more coplanar display are possible however,they will introduce larger X/Y gaps and Z gaps than the ones shown inFIGS. 10 and 11.

Displays can be contained within their individual own borders orcasings, as in the example described in FIGS. 9 and 10, but to minimizeboth the X/Y and Z gaps, they may instead be contained within a singleborder or casing. Borders or casings may also be removed to reduce adisplay unit's thickness Dt and border width Bw. The display units maybe manufactured separately and assembled later, such as a plasma paneland an LCD display that are combined in a single border or casing. Twoor more display units 100 may be manufactured in a single process, suchas an LCD display offering different pixel sizes in different regions ofthe display area.

FIG. 11 is a front view of a combination of two displays where the frontdisplay 120 is entirely surrounded by the rear display 110 and abuttedagainst the display area 130 of the rear display 110. As mentionedabove, the display units 110, 120 may be of any shape or orientation.For illustration purposes, the smaller display unit 120 is locatedapproximately in the center of the large display unit 110, but inpractice could be located anywhere within the larger display unit 120.

FIGS. 12, 13, and 14 show three possible side views of three differentembodiments of the combination of displays 110, 120 shown in FIG. 11.

FIG. 12 shows an embodiment where the smaller display 120 is placed infront of the larger display 110 as already described in FIG. 9. Thisconfiguration may be the easiest to construct as it may merely involveplacing one display 120 in front of another display 110.

FIG. 13 shows an embodiment where the larger display unit 110 has anopening 135 of sufficient size allow the smaller display unit 120 to befitted integrally within the display 110. A portion of the display area140 on a display unit 110 may be removed prior to combining it with adisplay area 120 the opening may be created during the manufacturingprocess. This combination allows the display area 140 and the displayarea 130 to be substantially coplanar with each other and minimizes thez gap. If display 120 has a border however, there will still be an x/ygap.

FIG. 14 shows an embodiment where the larger display 110 has an opening135, smaller than the display 120, and the display 120 is placed behindthe display 120 such that the display area 140 is viewable through theopening 135. This configuration may be useful in circumstances where thedisplay 120 has a border, which it is desired to hide if the resultant zgap between the displays is small enough. The opening 135 in the display110 can be made to be of substantially the same size and shape as thedisplay area 140 of the display 120. The display 120 may then alignedwith the opening 135 such that only the display area 140 of the display120 may be viewed through the opening 135.

The embodiments shown in FIGS. 12, 13 and 14 could consist of multipleLCD displays with different resolutions, organic displays combined withanother form of display, as well as CRT displays combined with otherdisplays. Alternative embodiments could consist of a high resolution LCDdisplay embedded in a Plasma display, with the LCD display being thesmall display unit 120 and the plasma display being the large displayunit 110. Yet another embodiment could consist of an LCD or similardisplay surrounded by an Electric paper type display. Other combinationsof displays could consist of any display technology defined abovecombined in any manner that would provide a mixed resolution displaycomprised of display units that would not interfere with one another.

FIG. 15 shows an embodiment implementing the configuration shown in FIG.11 with a projection unit 155 and a sheet of projection material as thedisplay surface 130 for display 110 and an LCD for the smaller display120. The display area 130 may be given any arbitrary shape includingshapes that have openings and are borderless. The projection surface canbe made of various materials, such as canvas, paper, cardboard, plastic,and coated materials, such as metal, etc. The projection surface can beproduced in any desired shape by cutting a larger piece of material intothe desired shape, by assembling it from multiple pieces of material, orany combination of the above. The projection can be adapted to the shapeof the projection surface by occluding part of it, either physically byblocking the projection in that region by placing a physical object inthe way of the light rays, or in the imaging system 200 (shown in FIG.1), by utilizing an image processor 240 that imposes a null image overthose parts of the projection image that would not fall onto theprojection surface 130. For example, it may be desirable to preventprojection of an image on the smaller display 120.

This image processor 240 generating the null image can be implemented insoftware or hardware. In an embodiment of the image processor 240generating the null image, the null image is created by a softwarewindowing program which created a black image, essentially a blackwindow with not title or borders that could be sized and moved eithermanually or automatically that occluded the projection image in the areaof the smaller display 120. The null image was non-selectable to preventit from being accidentally selected and sized, moved or otherwisechanged. The null image resided on the top most image or window layer sothat it occluded all images in the region. The null image can be createdby any windowing system such as Windows or Xwindows. In order to enableselection of elements shown on the display 120 the null image must alsobe transparent to mouse events. When the null image is set at the propersize and position, it then assumes a form as described above preventingthe projection system 155 from projecting an image on the display 120.Projection surfaces can be made borderless and very thin, for instancewhen they are made of paper or plastic, therefore they facilitate easyintegration of two or more displays into a mixed resolution displaywhich has substantially no X/Y gap between displays and a small Z gapallowing the user to perceive the image as continuous across the twodisplays.

FIG. 16 shows another perspective view of the embodiment of a mixedresolution display shown in FIG. 15 where the display 110 wasimplemented using a projection system that includes the projector 155and a projection surface for the larger display area 130. The projectionsystem 155 is placed above a user U to minimize the user U casting ashadow on the projected image and blocking out part of the projectedimage. The smaller display unit 120 was implemented using a display unitwith a substantially flat display area and a small border depth Bd, suchas a flat CRT, an LCD, a plasma display, a back projection display, anLED displays, an organic display, or an electric paper display, etc tominimize the z gap between the display images. The display surface 130of the display 110 was assembled using a combination of foam core andpaper with an opening therethrough to accommodate the display 120.

The configuration shown in FIG. 16 utilized the arrangement principledescribed in FIG. 13 although that was not necessary and thearrangements discussed with respect to FIGS. 12 or 14 are also feasible.If the arrangement shown in FIG. 12 had been utilized, it would not haverequired an opening in the projection surface. This would allow forusing a wider range of materials for the projection surface, such assolid materials; for example walls.

If the border 160 of the display 120 is visible then the border 160 ofthe display 120 may be covered with a material to create an additionalprojection surface on the border 160. To minimize gaps, the additionprojection surface should be tightly fitted to the display 120 occludethe entire border 160 of the display 120. However, the additional may belarger than the border 160 so that it overlaps the projection surface.The projected image from the projection system 155 should then beadjusted to project on the combined projection surface of the displaysurface 130 and the additional projection surface covering the border160. The additional projection surface over the border 160 of thedisplay unit 120 can be made of the same or a different material thanthe large projection surface used for display surface 130 and may bemade to be interchangeable.

In the embodiments described above, the display hardware of a mixedresolution display consisted of two displays. However, mixed resolutiondisplays can be created by arranging three or more displays. FIGS. 17,18 and 19 show embodiments consisting of three or more displays.

FIG. 17 shows an embodiment with multiple smaller displays 120, 121having display surfaces 160, 161 respectively, surrounded by a largedisplay unit 110 having a display surface 150. This type of embodimentcan be used to build video walls utilizing a tiled arrangement ofdisplays, and interactive installations, such as conference tables,comprising one or more small displays 120, 121 for each user combinedwith a large display 110. It can also be used for interactivewhiteboards, which include one or more small displays 120, 121 for eachuser combined with a large display 110. Each of the display units 110,120, 121 could be implemented as a single display, or they could beimplemented as configurations of multiple displays.

FIG. 18 shows another embodiment, with a display 121 having display area162 nested inside a display 120 with a display area 160 which is nestedinside a third display 110 having a display area 150. Again, each of thedisplays could be implemented as a single display, or as configurationsof multiple displays.

FIG. 19 shows a tiled configuration of four displays 110, 111, 112, 113having display areas 150, 151, 152, 153 that surround a single display120 having a display area 160. Displays 110, 111, 112, 113 may becombined as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10. The display 120 may be added asshown in FIGS. 12-13. Each of the displays could again be implemented asa single display or as configurations of multiple displays.

1. A display for displaying a single perceived continuous image acrossmultiple display devices such that a portion of the single image isdisplayed on each device comprising: a) a first display device having afirst display area with a first display resolution and a first boundary,so arranged and adapted to receive first image information data from afirst image processor; b) a second display device having a seconddisplay area with a second display resolution, wherein the seconddisplay resolution is different from the first display resolution, and asecond boundary, so arranged and adapted to receive second imageinformation data from a second image processor; c) a third displaydevice having a third display area so arranged and adapted to receivethird image information data; d) an image replicator configured togenerate different first and second scale factors necessary to scale thefirst and second image information data for display on the first andsecond display devices, respectively, wherein the first and second imageinformation data is scaled by the first and second scale factors fordisplay on the respective first and second display devices, and e) thefirst, second, and third display devices being so constructed andarranged such that when the first image information data is displayed onthe first display device, the second image information data is displayedon the second display device, and the third image information data isdisplayed on the third display device the resulting displayed singleimage appears to be substantially continuous across the first, second,and third display areas to a viewer situated to view the image and thedisplayed resolution of the portion of the image displayed on the firstdisplay area is different than the displayed resolution of the portionof the image displayed on the second display area such that one of:scaling, brightness, color, and translation of the displayed first imageinformation data and the displayed second image information data areboth within a predetermined tolerance value, wherein the first displayarea surrounds the second and third display areas, and the second andthird display areas are spaced apart with a portion of the first displayarea interposed therebetween.
 2. The display of claim 1 wherein onedisplay device comprises an LCD display.
 3. The display of claim 1wherein one display device comprises a projector and a projectionsurface.
 4. The display of claim 1 wherein the first and secondboundaries are at least partially contiguous.
 5. The display of claim 1wherein one display area is adjacent to another display area.
 6. Thedisplay of claim 1 wherein the third display resolution is differentfrom at least one of the first display resolution and the second displayresolution.
 7. A display comprising: at least three display devices,each display device having a display area with a given displayresolution wherein the display resolution of at least one display areais different from the display resolution of at least one other displayarea, a boundary wherein the boundary of each display area is at leastpartially contiguous with the boundary of at least one other displayarea, and an associated image processor for providing image informationdata, the display devices being so constructed and arranged such thatwhen a single image is displayed across the at least three display areasusing image information data received from the associated imageprocessors, the resulting displayed image is perceived as substantiallycontinuous to a viewer situated to view the image and the displayedresolution of the portion of the image displayed on one of the at leastthree display areas is different than the displayed resolution of theportion of the image displayed on at least one other of the at leastthree display areas such that one of: scaling, brightness, color, andtranslation of the displayed portion of the image displayed on one ofthe at least two display areas and the displayed portion of the imagedisplayed on at least one other of the at least two display areas areboth within a predetermined tolerance value; and an image replicatorconfigured to generate at least two different scale factors to scale theimage information data displayed on corresponding ones of the at leastthree display devices, wherein the image information data is scaled bythe at least two different scale factors for display on correspondingones of the at least three display devices, wherein the display area ofa first display device of the at least three display devices surroundsthe display areas of a second display device and a third display deviceof the at least three display devices, and the display areas of thesecond and third display devices are spaced apart with a portion of thedisplay area of the first display device interposed therebetween.
 8. Thedisplay of claim 7 wherein at least one display area comprises an LCDdisplay.
 9. The display of claim 7 wherein at least one display areacomprises a projection surface.
 10. The display of claim 7 wherein thereare 5 display areas.
 11. A display for displaying a single perceivedcontinuous image across three display devices such that a portion of thesingle image is displayed on each device comprising: a) means fordisplaying a first portion of an image on a first display area of afirst display device, the first display area having a first displayresolution and a first boundary; b) means for displaying a secondportion of the image on a second display area of a second displaydevice, the second display area having a second display resolution,wherein the second display resolution is different from the firstdisplay resolution, and a second boundary; c) means for displaying athird portion of the image on a third display area of a third displaydevice; d) an image replicator configured to generate different scalefactors to scale the first and second portions of the image displayed oncorresponding ones of the first and second display devices, wherein thefirst and second portions of the image are scaled by the scale factorsfor display on the corresponding ones of the first and second displaydevices; and e) the first, second, and third means for displaying beingso constructed and arranged such that when a combined image comprisingat least a portion of the first portion of the image displayed in thefirst display area, at least a portion of the second portion of theimage displayed in the second display area, and at least a portion ofthe third portion of the image displayed in the third display area aredisplayed the resulting combined image appears to be substantiallycontinuous to a viewer situated to view the image and the displayedresolution of the first portion of the image is different than thedisplayed resolution of the second portion of the image such that oneof: scaling, brightness, color, and translation of the displayed atleast a portion of the first portion of the image and the displayed atleast a portion of the second portion of the image are both within apredetermined tolerance value, wherein the first display area surroundsthe second and third display areas, and the second and third displayareas are spaced apart with a portion of the first display areainterposed therebetween.
 12. The display of claim 11 wherein one displaydevice comprises an LCD display.
 13. The display of claim 11 wherein onedisplay device comprises a projector and a projection surface.
 14. Thedisplay of claim 11 wherein one display area is adjacent to anotherdisplay area.